How come tourists can't seem to comprehend noise levels?

Question

It literally BAFFLES me that tourists can't seem to just look around them, realize that everyone is generally very quiet, and just replicate that behavior.

Like, if you walk into a room where every one is reading, and the only people talking are whispering... would you suddenly start speaking at full volume to your friend? Obviously not. This doesn't take "manners" or "upbringing", it just takes LOOKING AROUND YOU.

Seriously, it's crazy. Groups of tourists on the trains just talking super loudly, pissing everyone off.

The main culprit is obviously Chinese people, but I've actually seen Americans and British people do the same thing. Like, do you people have some kind of learning disability or something? Are you unable to take in information from your surroundings and adapt accordingly?

WHY??????

elise · Answer

ngl the train-as-library thing is the best way to put it. but i think the bigger issue is that most tourists are coming from places where the train is just transit, not a shared quiet space. like on the ginza line during rush hour nobody's talking at all, even japanese people are just staring at their phones or sleeping. tourists walk in and treat it like a bar patio and everyone around them is too polite to say anything so they never realize

the other thing is that a lot of the loudest groups i see are actually on the wrong train car. the yamanote line has those women-only cars in the morning but also the quiet cars on some lines and nobody tells tourists about them. i've seen families with kids yelling in the green car because they didn't know it was supposed to be quiet, and the attendant just walks past because it's not worth the confrontation

if you really want to avoid it, take the chuo line local from shinjuku instead of the rapid. the rapid is packed with tourists going to kichijoji and they're always loud. the local is mostly old people and students, way more chill, and you get to see the little stations nobody bothers with

melisande · Answer

honestly i get why you're annoyed but the chinese tourist thing is a bit much. yeah some groups are loud but i've seen plenty of quiet chinese families too. the worst i've dealt with was actually a bunch of drunk aussies on the yamanote line at 11pm, they were yelling about rugby and nobody said shit because it's still tokyo and we're all too polite to call them out.

i think part of the problem is that a lot of tourists come from places where train cars are basically social spaces. like in new york or london people chat on the subway all the time, it's normal. they don't realize that here the train is more like a library on wheels. the signs in english saying "please keep conversations quiet" are tiny and easy to miss if you're not looking.

also ngl sometimes japanese people aren't that quiet either. drunk salarymen on the last train can be pretty loud, and groups of high school girls giggling and shrieking on the saturday afternoon train are a thing. so it's not like we're all monks in silence 24/7. but yeah, tourists could prob stand to read the room a bit more.

amely · Answer

I get the frustration, but a lot of tourists just don't pick up on the social cues because they're used to being loud at home. It's not always intentional, they just don't realize how quiet it is here until someone shushes them.

Neu aus Tokyo